Casino Royale is a 1954 television adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. It was the first film adaptation of a James Bond novel. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Ian Lancaster Fleming (May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964) was a British author, journalist and Second World War Naval Officer. ... Charles Bennett (December 28, 1870 – March 9, 1949) is a former British athlete, winner of the 1500 m at the 1900 Summer Olympics and the first British track and field athlete to become Olympic champion. ... Barry Nelson (April 16, 1917 - April 7, 2007[1]) was an American actor noted as the first actor to portray Ian Flemings secret agent James Bond. ... Linda Christian as Valerie Mathis in Casino Royale (1954 TV film) Linda Christian (born Blanca Rosa Welter on November 13, 1924 (some sources cite 1923) in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico) is a Hollywood movie actress whose career reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. ... Peter Lorre (June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964), born Ladislav (László) Löwenstein, was an Austrian-Jewish stage and screen actor and director, who later became a naturalised US citizen. ... Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004) was a famous American film score composer from Los Angeles, California. ... October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 71 days remaining. ... See also: 1953 in film 1954 1955 in film 1950s in film years in film film Events May 12 - The Marx Brothers Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Casino Royale by Ian Fleming was the first James Bond novel. ... Ian Lancaster Fleming (May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964) was a British author, journalist and Second World War Naval Officer. ... For other uses, see Casino Royale (2006 film). ...

Background

In 1954, producer and director Gregory Ratoff of CBS paid Ian Fleming $1,000 to adapt Casino Royale into a one-hour television adventure as part of their Climax! series. Additionally, in the late 1950s CBS invited Fleming to write 32 episodes over a two-year period for a television show based on the James Bond character. Fleming agreed and began to write outlines for this series. When nothing ever came of this, however, Fleming grouped and adapted three of the outlines into short stories and released the 1960 anthology For Your Eyes Only along with an additional two new short stories. Gregory Ratoff was an American film director, actor and producer. ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... Climax! (a. ...

Barry Nelson In "Casino Royale"

The episode, Casino Royale, aired on October 21, 1954 and starred Barry Nelson as secret agent "Card Sense" James 'Jimmy' Bond and Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre. For this Americanised version of the story, Bond is described as an agent for "Combined Intelligence" (apparently confusing what the "C" in CIA stood for), while the character Felix Leiter from the original novel became "Clarence Leiter," an agent for Station S, and a combination of Leiter and Rene Mathis. The name "Mathis" was given to the leading lady, who is named Valerie Mathis (instead of Vesper Lynd). Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Barry Nelson (April 16, 1917 - April 7, 2007[1]) was an American actor noted as the first actor to portray Ian Flemings secret agent James Bond. ... Le Chiffre is a fictional character and the main villain in Ian Flemings James Bond novel Casino Royale. ... Felix Leiter is a fictional character created by Ian Fleming in the James Bond series of novels and films. ... // M - Judi Dench Felix Leiter - Jeffrey Wright Mathis is a fictional character from the James Bond film Casino Royale. ... Vesper Lynd is a fictional character of Ian Flemings James Bond novel Casino Royale. ...

This was the first screen adaptation of a James Bond novel, and was made before the formation of EON Productions. When MGM eventually obtained the rights to the 1967 film version of Casino Royale, it also received the rights to this television episode.

The hour long showing itself is split into three acts:

• Act I: Opening -- Opening of Baccarat scene
• Act II: Opening of Baccarat Scene -- Hotel Room finale Opening
• Act III: Hotel Room finale Opening -- Ending

Release History

According to Lee Pfeiffer, a well known James Bond expert, the Casino Royale TV-film was lost for decades after its first broadcast on 21st October 1954. It was not until early 1980s that the show was finally found and put on VHS release (there was also a one-time appearance on TBS). However, such release (that was later included as a bonus feature to the DVD of the 1967 Casino Royale film) and the airing on TBS did not include the full finale of the adaptation, which were at that point lost. It was found later on and included on a Spy Guise & Cara Entertainment VHS release. That release is the only one to date which includes the full finale that was last seen on the original broadcast, although as Lee Pfeiffer points out, the very last few seconds of the ending credits are still missing. After the VHS version, Spy Guise offered pre-orders for a DVD release, but rights issues with MGM forced them to scuttle the DVD release. MGM subsequently included the truncated version on its DVD of the 1967 Casino Royale. While Spy Guise has made the full version available to MGM, no public announcement of such a DVD release has been made. Early announcements regarding the DVD and HD disc releases of the 2006 film version of Casino Royale do not indicate the TV special's inclusion.

Complete Ending

All incomplete versions, as mentioned above, have the show ending with Bond confronting Le Chiffre and telling Valerie to go call the police. The complete ending has Le Chiffre grabbing Valerie and holding her captive with a razor, while slowly moving out of the room. Bond takes the chance to shoot him. It then ends with Bond and Valerie in embrace, a few words from host William Lundigan, and the credits.

Two stills from the lost ending of Casino Royale. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

Trivia

There is an urban legend that Peter Lorre, "killed" in Act 3, stood up and walked off camera during the broadcast. In fact, this actually occurred during an earlier episode of Climax!, during an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye; the event was widely covered in the media of the day. Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an author of crime stories and novels. ... The Long Goodbye (ISBN 0394757688) is a 1954 novel by Raymond Chandler, centered on his famous detective Philip Marlowe. ...

External links

• Casino Royale (1954) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Curious History of Casino Royale at MI6.co.uk
• Casino Royale (1954) Coverage at MI6.co.uk